User interface for facts query engine with snippets from information sources that include query terms and answer terms

• US 20060224582A1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hogue, Andrew William
• Granted Patent: US 7,587,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method and a system for providing snippets of source documents of an answer to a fact query are disclosed. Snippets of source documents may be provided in response to a user request for the source documents from which the fact answer to a fact query was extracted. The snippets include the terms of the fact query and terms of the answer. The snippets may be displayed along with Uniform Resource Locators (URL'"'"'s) of the source documents.

Claims

1. A method for displaying sources of a fact, comprising:

receiving a factual query, the factual query including one or more terms;

identifying an answer to the factual query, the answer including one or more terms;

identifying source documents including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer;

generating a snippet for at least one of the source documents, the snippet including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer; and

generating a response including the snippet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a response further comprises highlighting within the snippet the one or more terms of the factual query and the one or more terms of the answer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising responding to a user selection of a link within a displayed representation of the answer to the factual query.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating a response is responsive to the user selection of the link.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to list one or more of the source documents.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating a response is responsive to the request to list one or more of the source documents.

7. A system for displaying sources of a fact, comprising:

a query receiver to receive a factual query, the factual query including one or more terms;

an answer identifier to identify an answer to the factual query, the answer including one or more terms;

a source document identifier to identify source documents including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer;

a snippet generator to generate a snippet for at least one of the source document, the snippet including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer; and

a response generator to generate a response including the snippet.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the response generator further includes instructions to highlight within the generated snippet the one or more terms of the factual query and the one or more terms of the answer.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the query receiver further includes instructions to receive a request to list one or more of the source documents.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the query receiver further includes instructions to respond to a user selection of a link within a displayed answer to the factual query.

11. A system for displaying sources of a fact, comprising:

means or receiving a factual query, the factual query including one or more terms;

means for identifying an answer to the factual query, the answer including one or more terms;

means for identifying source documents including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer;

means for generating a snippet for at least one of the source documents, the snippet including one or f more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer; and

means for generating a response including the snippet.

12. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising:

receiving a factual query, the factual query including one or more terms;

identifying an answer to the factual query, the answer including one or more terms;

identifying source documents including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer;

generating a snippet for at least one of the source documents, the snippet including one or more terms of the factual query and one or more terms of the answer; and

generating a response including the snippet.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, the computer program mechanism further comprising highlighting within the snippet the one or more terms of the factual query and the one or more terms of the answer.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, the computer program mechanism further comprising receiving a request to list one or more of the source documents.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, the computer program mechanism further comprising responding to a user selection of a link within a displayed answer to the factual query.